


Like We're Swans

by Snow



Category: Cinderella - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-16
Updated: 2011-08-16
Packaged: 2017-10-22 16:21:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/240034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snow/pseuds/Snow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: Cinderella's early days in the castle from the pov of the servants</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like We're Swans

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ailelie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ailelie/gifts).



> Written as comment-fic and unbetaed.

Princess Ella was already awake when I came by her room. The Prince, her husband, had gone out hunting just before dawn, and I had instructions to wake the Princess at nine. When I went up at precisely nine, she was already awake, and dressed, or something approximating it. She was wearing a dress that didn't even look properly tailored, leaving aside the fact that the Princess hadn't laced it up right. She'd also made the bed, but not very well.

"You know you can call for me when you're awake," I said as I looked through her closet to find something she can wear to breakfast. I could fix the bed once she went to do that.

"I can also take care of myself," the Princess said.

It was very hard to resist glancing her over because it didn't look like she could, no, not really. But then, I'd never known anyone to actually be able to lace up their own dress, once the dress got past a certain level of complexity. "You can," I said agreeably, because at least half of my job was that I had to be agreeable. "But not in the manner your husband's parents are used to." I started undoing the ties on the dress she was wearing. "They'll be forgiving, given your...background, but wouldn't it be better if they didn't have to be?"

I thought I'd phrased that very diplomatically, but the Princess didn't seem at all impressed, or even like she was listening. She had that aspect of being royalty down, at least. "I'm not marrying John's parents, I'm marrying him. And he loves me for who I am."

If I had the right to say whatever I wanted, then I would tell her that in actuality, she was marrying the country. I didn't have that right, so I pulled her dress over her shoulders while I thought. "You have no wish to impress his parents?" I asked, eventually, hoping I wasn't crossing a line. "Regardless of the fact that they're the King and Queen."

"Of course I wish to impress them," the Princess said, so I smiled at her and pulled the slip over her head, settling it against her skin. "I just think I should be capable of dressing myself in the morning."

"They're not," I said.

The Princess looked at me wide-eyed while I tightened the laces on the corset I put on her next. "They don't dress themselves?"

"They have people hired to do it for them," I said, feeling a sudden flash of sympathy for the panic she must have felt this morning, looking at her wardrobe and trying to figure out how she was expected to sort it out on her own. "Just like I've been hired for you."

The Princess flashes me a very grateful smile. "So you're not judging me?"

It was rude to laugh with royalty, I knew, but Princess Ella wasn't quite royalty yet, and she looked like she desperately needed someone she could accept advice from. It wouldn't be proper for her to accept advice from someone levels below her, so I had to show that I understood that she was still in the process of moving from servant to princess. So I laughed. "Princess, if you could do all these things better than I could, then I'd be out of a job. I need my job, my younger sister still can't work and my mother needs the money to buy them both food."

"Call me Ella?" the Princess asks, all caution and hopefulness. "At least while we're alone, I understand if you can't other times. But you've already seen me naked, and from what I understand you're going to be doing that for quite a while longer."

It took another long moment of thought before I nodded. "It would be an honor," I said, as I pulled the dress over her head.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, comments (including constructive criticism) are welcome and will be loved.


End file.
